Share a Coke is Coca-Cola’s biggest campaign. But after decades of exposure around the world, people thought they knew the ‘names on cans’ campaign inside out.

Put simply, people had campaign fatigue, and that posed a problem for the campaign that makes or breaks the year for Coca-Cola.

The campaign objectives were:

1. Increase sales, or at least beat the projected sales figure.

2. Reignite people’s love for Share a Coke.

Oh, and half-way through our planning process, that turned into:

3. Create a campaign that would be completely immune to any erratic lockdown restrictions imposed by different state governments.

How do you share a Coke when you can’t share a Coke?

No big deal.

To relaunch a campaign that’s predicated on sharing, we reinvented it by inviting Aussies to shout out their mates on national TV using Coke as the vehicle.

Armed with 2019 campaign data, we found that the “one off” names we’d printed on Cokes that were uniquely Aussie - like Bogan (uncouth person) and Old Mate (a snarky but loving nickname) - were the most popular.

How could we make Share a Coke feel more resonant and unique than ever? By making it Aussie through and through, replacing everyday names with Aussie nicknames and colloquialisms.

What started as a way to get people sharing a Coke when they couldn’t became a paradigm shift for Coke. Instead of creating another stereotypical 30” Coke ad, we engaged everyday Aussies and made them the stars of Coca-Cola’s biggest ever UGC campaign, turning what was formerly an intimate moment into a public one.

Coca-Cola stands for belonging and togetherness, helping people share an uplifting moment of connection. How do you do this when physical connection is off the cards?

Analysing our data from 2019 had shown that the cans with “Aussie” names were the most popular.

Nicknames and colloquialisms, particularly impenetrable ones, are an integral part of Australian culture. Language is how Aussies express affection – here, everyone gets a nickname. Whether you’re prince or pauper, in Australia you’re just Old Mate.

But during the pandemic, the idea of Australian ‘mateship’ was strained: fighting over toilet paper and isolated from each other, Aussies weren’t up for belonging and couldn’t get together. 2020 was the perfect time to swap out “normal” names for Aussie nicknames and help everyone reconnect through our UGC TVCs. We’d highlight stories of human connection happening everyday by asking Aussies to Shout out a Mate and Share a Coke.

We did away with a traditional Coke campaign, instead inviting Aussies to Share a Coke and a Shout Out with anyone, anywhere in Australia.

As people were familiar with ‘traditional’ Share a Coke comms, we launched with 3 scripted UGC TVCs with a CTA inviting Aussies to submit their shout out through our website and social channels.

Getting a submission approved and onto TV quickly meant agency, production, client and legal had to be nimble, creating a completely new process.

Shout outs were geotargeted, so each TVC was strategically mapped by TV market satellite (metropolitan and regional) ensuring it was seen in the right location, by the right people. Anyone successful was notified with the time and network their shout out would be aired.

What started as 3 scripted shout outs snowballed into 650+ shout outs; over the 2-month campaign 53 were aired as TVCs across Australia's 6 main networks.

Our objectives were to increase sales and bring Share a Coke back to the hearts and minds of Aussies, in a COVID-safe way.

We increased volume sales by a whopping 16.4% YOY, smashing the previous year’s growth.

Our TVCs reached a total of 7.25M unique Australians across the campaign – which is huge for a population of only 24 million.

Metrics around “enjoyed a lot” were 24% during the peak of our campaign, which is 2x stronger than the AU norm.

Message take-out for the Aussified packs hit 79%, significantly above the AU norms.

We were significantly above AU norm in persuasion to buy.

650+ shout outs from Aussies, meaning we created Coca-Cola’s biggest ever UGC campaign and put Coke back in the hearts of Aussies thanks to the Strayafication of Share a Coke.

For a campaign that’s been in-market for over a decade, we’re stoked with that result.